1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a card connector assembly, and particularly to a rotatable card connector assembly for facilitating insertion of a card.
2. Description of the Prior Art
U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,068,510, 6,071,135 and 6,077,088 disclose some conventional card connectors. In these designs, the card connector is normally fixed at an edge of a printed circuit board (PCB) located in an electronic device. In assembly, a card is inserted through a cutout defined in the electronic device into the card connector along a direction parallel to the card connector. In other words, this design is only applicable in situations where the card connector occupies an edge of the PCB. However, in some special situations, the edge of the PCB is not available for mounting the card connector since the space on PCBs is becoming increasely critical. Accordingly, the conventional mounting arrangement is no longer applicable in this situation. In other words, conventional card connectors cannot be used in situations where use of the board edge is denied. Hence, an improved card connector is required to overcome the disadvantages of the prior art. On the other hand, in some application situations of the notebook computer, the card is required to be inserted into the computer enclosure from the bottom plate instead of the side wall because of the internal compact arrangement of the notebook computer. Under this situation, a moveable card connector is desired which may either be exposed to an exterior from the bottom plate of the computer enclosure for insertion/withdrawal, or reliably and securely embedded within the computer enclosure when the card is inserted therein.
A first object of the present invention is to provide a rotatable card connector assembly which can be mounted at a side of a PCB of an electronic device.
A second object of the present invention is to provide a rotatable card connector assembly for receiving an exterior card in an inclined direction.
Accordingly, a rotatable card connector assembly in accordance with the present invention comprises a PCB, a board-to-board connector assembly fixed on the PCB, a card connector being mounted to the PCB, and a FPC connecting with said terminals of the card connector and the board-to-board connector assembly to establish an electrical connection therebetween. The card connector comprises an insulative housing, a plurality of terminals received therein and two fixing clips. The insulative housing includes two pivots projecting from each end thereof to provide a rotational axis for the insulative housing, and two guiding bars extending from two ends of the header adapted for guiding an exterior card. The pivot is pivotably connecting with the fixing clips so that the insulative housing is pivotable rotate to the fixing clips from one side of the ledge to the other side to move the card connector from an open position to a closed position;
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of the present embodiment when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.